All Creatures Great & Small: The Complete Series 5 Collection

I read all the previous reviews of other longtime fans of this wonderful, heart-warming series and have to agree with the first four opinions.Series 5 may be different in that the series no longer is by James Herriot but in fact, written by other writers familiar with the characters of James, Siegfried, Tristan, and James' wife, Helen..With the new addition of Calum Buchanan, John McGlynn's first series ever, is magical with the added twist of the romantic mishaps of Deirdre, his lady-love.His portrayal reminds me of the energy that the other vets had during the first series and second. Even more so, tis a part of Calum's nature,his love for animals distracts his whole day on many occasions!I miss Helen (the first one) in Carol Drinkwater.The real-life romance between Christopher Timothy and Carol Drinkwater is most naturally effervescent and missed in Seasons 4 & 5..Lynda Bellingham has her own way with the character of Helen Herriot, so one has to adjust.Still, a worthwhile Series Five, to watch with the whole family. They haven't run out of storylines and worth keeping to share with friends.Going for Series 6 and beyond!

I thought episodes about Caleb would be enjoyable since he was such an interesting character, with his pet badger who went on his rounds with him, and his many pets and rescue animals. But this Caleb has nary a pet, let alone a badger. This Caleb spends most of his off time getting drunk or recovering from getting drunk. I do not recall the book Caleb drinking but I suppose the producers thought you couldn't go wrong with boozers -- since Tristan has the same problem when he isn't chasing females. Caleb's lady appears in a couple of episodes but she's more interested in cleaning house than animals. It's sad that this show never or seldom seems to capture the essence of the novels; the beauty of the Yorkshire landscape, the strength, generosity, and fortitude of the farmers, the joy of Life, and the remarkable love for the animals. The farmers are fat and often nasty. The animals are just animals with little personality. Siegfried is a plump man in his fifties, whereas the original Siegfried was only eight years older than Heriot. So, you have to take this series in stride and accept it as an alternate universe and you will be okay.

This season completes my collection & I am super pleased with it!!! 💗💗

Although it is many years ago since I first watched 'All Creatures Great and Small' on television, I have never forgotten it, and since it has became available in DVD format, I put it on the top of my wish list, and this past Christmas I got Series 1-5, and have been relishing in them ever since. How delightful they are - and how I wish today's television had the same delightful, decent, quality as they do. I'd recommend them to anyone who wants to enjoy intelligent quality entertainment - no four letter words and removing of clothes in 'All Creatures Great and Small'

The DVD arrived in great shape and much earlier than I expected.

I like this show

I love the original series, which I've re-watched numerous times, but apparently the writers tried to reprise it as a comedy starring the tiresome and unfunny "antics" of the Tristan character. Seasons 5, 6 and 7 have a few memorable episodes (especially Season 6 when Tristan is away TB testing cows in Ireland) but overall the animals and James's character have become almost incidental and I'll be doing a lot of fast-forwarding if I ever watch these again.

Anyone who has read the Herriot books will really enjoy these series. They are true to the flavor and humour of the Herriot stories. The animals are fun, sad, frustrating but the human characters are often moreso. It may take a bit of time up front, if you're not familiar with the English/Yorkshire accent, to get used to the local lingo and decipher what they are saying, but it doesn't take long before it's second nature to your ears. Wonderful stories for children and adults alike. These are classics, don't pass them up.

I had fond (if vague) memories of watching All Creatures Great and Small as a child, and so recently started rewatching them from scratch. The first three series are superb, but from series 4 onwards the show hits problems: by then the original material by Alf Wight/James Herriot was virtually used up, and the scriptwriters had to write the plots themselves. Sadly, they didn't possess Wight's touch of genius and feel for the subject, and the stories become increasingly cheesy and contrived. As if realising the problem, series 4 shamelessly recycled older plotlines, but the rot really set in with series 5.By now the lovely Carol Drinkwater is gone, replaced by the competent but dull Lynda Bellingham (though, in fairness, she was apparently closer to the real-life Joan Wight/Helen Herriot). Drinkwater's absence is a problem, but a far greater one is the loss of Tristan, Siegfried Farnon's rascally 'little brother', whose debauched ways gave the show a bit of spark. Peter Davison, who played Tristan, wanted to work on other projects, so his character is written out and packed off to Ireland to do tuberculin testing - judging from the length of his absence (he eventually returned in series 7) he must have tested every cow in Ireland.Tristan was replaced by a young Scottish vet named Calum Buchanan...and here is where All Creatures Great and Small really hit the skids. First introduced in series 4, Calum is at first a tolerable presence, but in series 5 the writers decided to make him the focus of the show, pushing Herriot himself and Siegfried to the sidelines. Disaster ensues. The original concept - a tale of vets and Yorkshire folk set before and after World War II - goes out of the window, and instead it becomes The Calum Buchanan Show, focusing on his tedious love life and clichéd Scottish mannerisms. At least two episodes are devoted entirely to his romantic escapades, which are both dull and impossible to care about. Calum's on-off girlfriend, Deirdre, is a whining, petulant bore, and the two spend most of their time shouting at each other. At times it threatens to become a period version of Emmerdale, another show that abandoned its roots in favour of halfwit soap opera.Herriot, meanwhile, played affably as ever by Christopher Timothy, is reduced to a supporting character in his own show. What Alf Wight made of this can only be guessed at, though apparently he approved the scripts. I was tempted to abandon the series, now rendered only watchable by the presence of Timothy and Robert Hardy and the forever gorgeous Yorkshire scenery, but fought my way to the end and soldiered on to series 6....

This set is essential for one's BBC video collection. The characters are seen again, working in the post-war years. This 5th series is a bit better than the 4th with some additions to the cast and some lovely storylines. If you watch one episode, you end up watching all of the episodes in a day. They're too enjoyable to stop at one!

I love All Creatures Great and Small and remember the series fondly however I was very dissapointed when it arrived and I found out that I would need to have a multiregion DVD player to play it on! When I bought it a long time ago, this was not made as clear on the description page as it now appears to be. The quality is fine once you are able to view it.

One of the all-time great TV series! Absolutely worth every penny and well worth watching in chronological order. A pity it is not HD quality, but the story and atmosphere of the North of England are unique. Buy it and show it to your grandchildren - which I will be doing a couple of years from now - although they speak German only at the moment they wilol still enjoy this series.

Brilliant